


Pride

by NobleRose



Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Domestic Fluff, Everyone Is Gay, Fluff, Gay, M/M, carter and jun are pan, everyone except emile and thom are at the beginning, fluff mostly, jorge and emile are bi, jun is nonbinary, kat and six are lesbians, thom is gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-27 20:54:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15033119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NobleRose/pseuds/NobleRose
Summary: Noble Team survived Reach, and have been living on Earth after the war's end. One day, they decide to go to Pridefest. Emile/Thom centric, AU.





	Pride

“Emile. Emile, get up, man!”

“Wh… ‘s fuckin’. Early. I’m not gettin’ up…”

“Emile, today is-” An alarm clock cut Thom off, blaring a reminder. Time to get ready for Pride! Emile shrugged the blankets off, suddenly a whirlwind of movement as he remembered what was happening. His normal morning fog, usually only eased by multiple hours of being awake, dissipated instantly as he basically jumped out of bed.

“Where did we put the flags again?”

“Take a shower first, dumbass.” Thom grinned, pointing into the bathroom. 

“Ugh… do I have to? I wanna go NOW…”

“Yes, Emile, you have to, and we aren’t meeting up with the others until eleven anyway - it’s only nine.”

“Wait, they’re actually coming?”

“Yep. Including Six, who I have a feeling is going to be there holding hands with Kat.” 

“Fuck… fine, I’ll shower.” Emile looked a little dejected, but was clearly motivated at the prospect of seeing all of Noble Team for the first time in weeks - maybe even months. As he walked into the bathroom, he grabbed a towel from the holder on the right side of the room, and turned the water up - only a little. Thom had always asked him why he kept his showers “so damn cold”...

He stepped out of the shower and was greeted by a very excitable Thom. Met with kisses all over his face - and a couple on his neck, he hoped they wouldn’t leave marks for the festival - he quickly responded by curling into his partner’s arms. 

“You ready, Emile?”

“Yeah, did you shower?”

“Yep. And got dressed, and found the flags - they were in the front hall closet, where you suggested we put them. Your memory is shit, babe.” Emile muttered a ‘fuck off’ and grabbed his clothes - he and Thom had had a hell of a time getting clothes that would fit them in pride style, but it had ended up working out - they’d both found something they liked, though Thom had berated Emile for his choice. “Dude, you know people on Earth think those tops are tacky, right?”

“Does it matter? I’M tacky, Thom.” In fairness, it was true - he had grabbed a baggy tank top with most of the sides cut out, but it had the bisexual flag on it and that was what he cared about. Thom, meanwhile, had a t-shirt saying “let’s get one thing straight: I’m not”. Emile thought that was a little tacky, especially in the stupid-looking font the designers had used, but he had at least had the mind to keep it to himself - a rare thing for him.

Thom handed Emile a bi flag as they walked out, and draped a rainbow flag around his own shoulders. Emile did the same, getting into the car and checking his pockets. Wallet, phone, check. That was all he planned on bringing - Thom had the keys, as he was a MUCH better driver than Emile.

“Hey, Thom, can I put on some really old music?”

“I… Yeah, I guess. Go for it. Is it tacky and gay enough to blast with the windows down?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then hell yeah, let’s hear it.”

My mama told me when I was young, we were all born superstars…

“EMILE, WHAT THE FUCK.”

“It’s tacky and gay! Lady Gaga was PEAK gay culture.”

“Yeah, it was. FIVE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, DUMBASS.”

“Wow, fuck you too, babe. I like it, so we’re listening to it.”

“Whatever.” Emile rolled the windows down, Thom sighing and putting his head in his hand before pulling out of the driveway.

 

Hundreds of people were already pouring into the festival area by the time the two pulled up to the parking zone, and frankly, Emile felt more anxious than he had in a long time. The tension was probably palpable to Thom - he felt bad, but he couldn’t do anything about it. He didn’t like going out in public, even now, even with his scar mostly covered by makeup and his confident stride practiced to perfection.

Thom had to have sensed his nervousness, because he gently yet firmly squeezed Emile’s hand. Emile laced his fingers with Thom’s as they headed to the entrance of the festival, and just that gesture made him feel a little safer.

Thom always made him feel a little safer.

 

“THOM!”

That was Kat’s voice. They’d been at the rendezvous point for ten minutes alone, so it was high time someone else showed up. Kat wasn’t flamboyantly dressed - she had a small-ish lesbian flag pin on the top of her shirt, but the rest of her attire was what Emile assumed she wore every day - casual, but not tackily so, not like how Thom claimed Emile dressed.

“Hey, Kit-kat.”

“How many times have I told you not to call me that? Dumbass… I missed you.” Emile knew Kat and Thom were about as close as anyone on Noble Team had ever been, almost like brother and sister. They were the kind of “siblings” who would fight playfully, but almost never seriously - they were closer than most anyone he knew.

“Aw, come on. Hey, where’s Sixie? Did she decide not to come?”

“She’s at the food truck. We didn’t eat before we came - her fault, she took too long getting ready.” Kat shrugged. “Not that I mind - she looks fantastic.”

“Of course YOU think that,” Thom responded, smirking. “Where are the others, have they shown up?”

“Jun is on the way still, I think Jorge and Carter are also in line for food somewhere. Or maybe buying merch. Carter had a pan flag on, kind of like the ones you two have.”

“Gotcha. I’ll keep an eye out.”

“Hey, Thom. Hey, Emile.” That would be Jun, speak of the devil. He had a few different buttons on - one looked like the non-binary flag, the other was the pansexual one, and his shirt read “Pan with a Plan”. 

“Nice shirt,” Emile jabbed, but there was a sparkle in his eyes that showed he wasn’t actually being mean. Ever since Thom had gotten him to open up to the rest of Noble, he had found they were actually good people - and were willing to withstand a lot of teasing, which was a plus.

“Thanks.” Jun grinned. “Carter and Jorge are on the way, I saw them talking in line. They’ll be here soon.”

“It’ll be nice to see them again,” Thom chimed in. “It’s been… months?”  
An affirmation from Emile. “Yeah, at least three. We saw them in… early March, and it’s late June now. So three and a half?”

“Wow, Emile, way to go. I didn’t know you could do math.”

“Shut UP, Jun.” Emile made a face at him. Thom knocked him on the shoulder - a reminder not to be so “childish”, as the man often described it. Emile had to admit, sticking his tongue out as people was a LITTLE immature.

Not that he’d ever say that out loud - he would never concede that Thom was right about anything. Of course, Thom knew anyway. He knew everything about Emile, could sense his every emotion and read his every intonation.

Like two halves of a whole mind.

Emile liked that about him.

Jorge and Carter walked up to the group, pan flag draped across the latter’s shoulders just as Kat had said. Jorge had a collared shirt with little bi flags patterned across it - very cute, and a good choice for him. Emile nodded to both of them, instinctively drawing closer to Thom. The other man squeezed his hand - they hadn’t let go of each other yet - and Emile’s anxiety eased. He knew Thom would be there for him.

Six followed behind the two, and that made up all of Noble. “Back to full strength, I see,” Carter said. “Looks like we’re all here. Do we have any plans?”

“I want to watch the chorus sing - a bunch of gay dudes in uniforms? Sounds great.” Jun said. 

“Of course you wanna watch the chorus,” Emile smirked, but Thom elbowed him again. 

“Sounds good, when do they start?” Thom said.

“Not for another hour and a half, I have a schedule,” Carter said. Good planning on his part - Emile didn’t even know there WAS a schedule.

“Well, we can split again for now and reconvene there when it starts?” Jun suggested. 

“Sounds good,” Jorge affirmed, already turning to walk off. Kat and Six nodded, Six taking Kat’s hand and pulling her toward a merch booth. Emile and Thom broke off from the group as well, and Emile looked to Thom for guidance.

“You wanna grab something to eat?” Thom offered, grinning at Emile. He was still anxious, Thom could see it in his expression. “We can go to the corn dog truck. I bet I can eat ten corn dogs.”

“You are NOT getting ten corn dogs, you’ll look stupid.” Emile glared at him.

“So? Pride is for having fun, not looking impressive.”

“... Fine. I guess.” Thom nodded and pointed in the direction of the truck.

 

As they waited in line, Emile could feel his anxiety building. It was almost like a sixth sense - he could feel that something was about to go wrong. He could defend himself physically, certainly, but emotionally, with compromised mental health due to nerves? He might have a meltdown, and that was NOT what he wanted.

“Emile? You good?” Thom asked, noticing his eyes narrowing and hand starting to shake.

“I… can I go sit down for a bit?”

“Yeah, sure. There’s a bench over there, if you move fast you can snag it.”

“Okay… okay. Meet me there when you’re done, okay?”

“Alright.” Thom gave his partner’s hand one more squeeze before dropping contact, letting Emile wander.

 

Emile sat down on the bench, and in moments was joined by another man, almost his height - surprising, everyone knew Spartans were taller than average by a fair bit. 

“Hey, you here alone?” The guy asked, and Emile already knew where the conversation was going to go.

But he couldn’t stop it, not with his hands shaking out of anxiety and fear of being judged.

“No. I’m here with my boyfriend, he’s in line for food.” He said, trying to keep his voice steady.

“Damn, that’s a shame. Think he’d notice if we… snuck off for a bit?”

“I don’t want to go anywhere with you.”

“Damn shame. Didn’t wanna have to make you, but…” he patted his hip. Emile looked down, and he froze. There was a silhouette of a knife under the man’s shirt. There was only one way this would go.

“Listen. My boyfriend is gonna come over here any minute, and if he sees you pull a KNIFE on me, he is NOT going to be happy. I think it’ll end better for both of us if you just back off.” Emile tried to say, but he tripped on his words. He knew he could fight the guy off, but attention was the last thing he wanted right now, and that would draw a hell of a lot of attention.

“Well, ain’t that just too damn bad. Cuz guess what?” The man leaned close to Emile - he could smell alcohol on the guy’s breath.

“I don’t care.”

With lightning reflexes, the man pulled his knife, and there was nothing Emile could do. Paralyzed by fear of causing a scene, the knife slashed his side. Someone gasped - he could hear blood pounding in his ears, but he could not move. The man raised the knife again, but just as quickly as he moved, he was tackled to the ground.

“GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HIM!” 

It was Thom. He took a swing at the man, hitting him square in the jaw and making him cry out. By now, a small crowd had gathered - what Emile had wanted to avoid, and he still couldn’t move, especially with the growing pain in his side.

“You hurt my boyfriend. He told you to back off, you didn’t listen. Now? Your dumb ass is about to get thrown in jail for attacking him, totally unprovoked.” Another punch, this time to the gut. The man lurched on the ground, attempting to squirm away, but Thom wasn’t having it. He hit him three more times - once in the jaw, once in the side of the face, and once in the chest. Each hit drew a pained cry from the man - not so brave now that a Spartan was actually attacking him.

“If I EVER see you come near my boyfriend again, you’re fucking DEAD. Got it?” The man nodded, fear in his eyes and his lip bleeding profusely.

“Alright. Now somebody get the police over here on this bastard.” Thom shouted, and a few people from the crowd disappeared, hopefully to get the police involved. Thom stayed down for a few moments, making sure the guy wouldn’t move. When he was satisfied that there would be no attempt to escape, he ran to Emile, taking his hand.

“Emile? Hey, come on, answer me. Babe?”

“I…” Emile’s voice was a whisper.  
“Come on, babe. It’s okay. I gotcha now. We’re gonna get you to the first aid tent, get you patched up, okay? Can you stand?” Emile nodded, silent, and stood, leaning on Thom. There was blood all over his shirt - damn. That might never come all the way out…

“It’s okay. Come on, let’s get you over there, ‘kay? This bastard’s gonna pay for this, if he hasn’t already after I beat his ass.”

“Yeah. I… yeah.” Emile muttered. Thom squeezed his hand, walking him to the tent slowly.

 

After Emile was patched up and his anxiety had calmed a little, Thom pulled him into a hug, kissing both of his cheeks in the process. “You okay?” He asked, worry evident in his expression. 

“Yeah… I’m sorry, Thom. I should have defended myself.”

“Babe. You have REALLY bad anxiety about stuff like that. I get it, I do. You didn’t want to draw attention to yourself, hell, if I hadn’t showed up you probably would’ve gotten hurt really badly just because you didn’t want a crowd on you. I get it. But you’re safe now… I promise.” Emile nodded numbly. 

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you sooner.”

“It’s okay. You had to eat, dumbass.”

“Food isn’t nearly as important as my boyfriend getting knifed, but okay.” Thom grinned, squeezing his hand again. Emile said nothing - instead, he pulled him in for a kiss, gently pressing his lips to Thom’s and smiling softly into the motion. Thom returned the gesture with passion, pulling Emile closer to him.

“I love you.”

“I love you too,” Emile grinned, breathing a little heavy from the length of the kiss.

“Hey, that’s the chorus starting up. Do you want to go find the others? You can tell them how your daring, oh-so-handsome boyfriend saved you.” Emile punched him in the arm gently, still smiling widely.

“Absolutely not.” And with that, they walked off, headed to reunite with the others.


End file.
